Cyclone Biparjoy: India’s largest public sector seaport Kandla shuts down
Spokesperson of Deendayal Port Authority (DPA) Om Prakash Dadlani said all port operations were halted on Monday morning.
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Barricades were placed on the road leading to beach in Mandvi, in Kutch on Sunday. Photo by Vinay Toprani
India’s largest public sector port in Gujarat’s Kandla was shut Monday morning as the extremely severe cyclonic storm (ESCS) Biparjoy, blowing in the Arabian Sea, continued to move towards the state’s coast and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an Orange alert in Saurashtra and Kutch coast.
Spokesperson of Deendayal Port Authority (DPA) Om Prakash Dadlani told The Indian Express, “The weather has turned very rough in Kandla and in view of the IMD forecast that the cyclone will hit the Kutch coast on June 15, on Sunday evening the DPA decided to shut the port completely. Accordingly, all port operations were halted on Monday morning and the port has shut down completely.”
DPA is the autonomous body which owns and operates Kandla port at Kandla creek on the Kutch coast. It functions under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. Kandla is the country’s largest public sector port handling more than 100 million tonnes of cargo annually. In the 2022-23 financial year, it handled more than 137 million metric tonnes of cargo.
Port warning signal No.10 indicates great danger to the port on account of the possibility of a severe cyclone crossing over or near the port. It is the second-highest level of warning before signal N.11 which indicates communication failure with the cyclone warning office.
“There were 15 vessels at the port on Sunday. After we decided to cease operations due to the impending danger, we asked all the vessels to sail off. Consequently, six of them sailed off late Sunday evening and the remaining nine sailed off on Monday morning,” Dadlani said, adding, “At present, no vessel is berthed or anchored in the port area. Vessels which were waiting to berth at Kandla have also sailed off.”
As per the latest IMD warning on Cyclone Biparjoy, the extremely severe cyclonic storm was 320 km southwest of Porbandar, 360 km south-southwest of Devbhumi Dwarka and 440 km south of Jakhau port in Kutch at 8.30 am on Monday. The cyclone is likely to make landfall between Mandvi in Kutch and Karachi in Pakistan at around noon on June 15, the Met office has predicted.
The IMD has said the cyclone will lead to phenomenal sea conditions and a storm surge of two to three metres which will result in flooding of low-lying areas along the coast. It is expected to weaken into a severe cyclonic storm while hitting the coast, with maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135 kmph gusting to 150 kmph.
The IMD said that on June 12, gale wind speed reaching 165-175 kmph gusting to 195 kmph is likely to prevail over north-east and adjoining east-central Arabian Sea becoming 145-155 kmph gusting to 175 kmph from night. Squally wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph is likely over adjoining areas of west-central Arabian Sea.
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